Son of god

The term Son of God or Son of God is an honorary title in some religions . In Judaism , it designates the people of Israel, kings of Israel and individual righteous Israelites , ( Hebrew ben elohim בֵּן אֱלֹהִים). In Christianity , Jesus Christ is proclaimed as the only incarnate Son of God ( Mt 16.16 f. EU ) who was already before the creation of the world ( Joh 17.5 EU , 17.24 EU ) and the God from eternity for the redemption of all Sent people and who himself is God. The creed of Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son of God was recorded in the christological councils of the early church ( list of ecumenical councils ) as the core of the Christian faith.

The " Son of Man " ( Hebrew ben adam בן – אדם, Aramaic bar enascha or bar nascha ), in comparison, is also an expression from the Hebrew Bible . In the New Testament (NT) the Greek expression ἱὸ υἱὸς τοὺ ἀνθρώπου ( ho hyios tu anthropu , "the son of man") only appears in Jesus of Nazareth's own statements , always in the third person, never as a statement about him or others.

Ancient Orient and Antiquity

Alexander , "Son of God the Father Zeus ", detail on the " Alexander sarcophagus "

A ruler was in the god-king ideology of ancient oriental empires since about 2000 BC. Often referred to as the Son of God . In ancient Egypt the Pharaoh was called the son of the god Amun . In Hellenism , Alexander the Great was revered as the "son of Zeus ". The Seleucids took over this title .

After the death and apotheosis of Julius Caesar as Divus Julius , Augustus called himself from 42 BC. "Son of God" ( Divi filius ). This established the Roman imperial cult , which the subsequent Roman emperors continued.

Judaism

David (Michelangelo)

The Tanach delimits the belief of the Israelites against polytheism , its gods and against the deification and worship or invocation of people, living beings and objects. This is shown by the passages that reflect the influences of ancient oriental mythology : Thus the sons of God in Gen 6,2 EU produce long-life descendants of Adam, i.e. humans, not gods.

Hos 11.1 EU calls the entire chosen people of Israel the Son of God . In the royal psalms, an enthroned ruler of Israel is often called that way ( Ps 2,7 EU ; 28 EU ). The surrounding motifs show the influence of the ancient oriental court language. However, the idea that the king was physically "begotten" by God, divine or a demigod is missing; Rather, the title expresses a choice of person analogous to an adoption. The king is commissioned to lead the whole people of God Israel and legally obliged to keep God's will.

In the dynasty promise to King David , “Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever through me” ( 2 Sam 7,16 EU ), it is announced to him that God will regard David's biological son as his: “I want father for him his and he will be a son for me ”( 2 Sam 7,14 EU ). There is no evidence in the Tanach for the assumption that the title of Son of God was transferred from there to the Messiah as the savior of the end times. A later quotation of this promise ( 1 Chr 17 EU ) calls the David successor rather "servant".

Some fragments under the Dead Sea Scrolls (written about 200–100 BC) combine the Messia title with the titles Son of God and Son of the Most High (4Q 246). In contrast, the Son of God title is missing in all Jewish writings that speak of the Messiah between 100 BC and 100 AD.

Christianity

God's only begotten Son , icon in the Annunciation Cathedral in Moscow

New Testament

The early Christianity referred the title known from the Old Testament exclusively to Jesus of Nazareth in order to express his unique relationship to the God of Israel. “Son of God” or “(the) Son” is one of the most common titles of sovereignty for Jesus in the New Testament (NT) , along with Christ (“Anointed One”) and Kyrios (“Lord” as a salutation from God). It appears in most of the NT scriptures and is missing in several letters ( pastoral letters , 2. Thessalonians , James , 1. Peter and Jude ).

The Gospel of Mark places the title Son of God in the foreground from the beginning ( Mk 1,1 EU ). At his baptism (1.11 EU ) and his pre-Easter transfiguration (9.7 EU ), God declared Jesus to be his beloved Son from heaven. The demons that Jesus cast out also recognized and addressed him as the Son of God (3.11 EU ; 5.7 EU ). The apocalyptic end-time speech subordinates the son and his task in the world emphasized to the father (13.32 EU ). In view of his death on the cross , the Roman officer who supervised the execution was the first to admit (15.39 EU ): “Truly, this man was God's Son.” That is why the followers of Jesus are supposed to proclaim the risen Kyrios and cast out demons in his name (16.15-19 EU ). This understanding of the title as a designation of the Savior chosen by God for the final salvation of the world is taken up by other NT scriptures ( Joh 1,14 EU , Heb 2,9 EU , Phil 2,7 EU etc.).

In Rev 2,18 EU the exalted Christ introduces himself to the church of Thyatira as "Son of God". Only at this point does the title appear in the Revelation of John . Its author places Christ as the true Son of God against the Roman emperors who also call themselves. In addition, the title prepares the quotation from the Son of God Psalm at the end of the same letter (Ps 2: 8f. In Rev 2:27). This promises the followers who are faithful to Christ in Thyatira a share in the power of the Son of God.

However, there is no direct evidence that the historical Jesus understood himself as the Son of God. It is true that the framework of the miracle reports interpret these healing acts as a sign of his sonship; The forgiveness of sins and the interpretation of the Torah also refer to this authority. But in Jesus' own statements, he mainly uses the title of the Son of Man , and only sometimes confirms the title of God's Son in conversations ( Mk 14.61–62 EU , Joh 10.36 EU ).

Old church

The church fathers Clement of Alexandria and Origen (around and after AD 200) taught that the Logos, who was embodied in Jesus, was necessary for God to reveal himself to the physical and spiritual world. The Logos Jesus is just as eternal as the Creator. Arius in the 4th century thought that the Logos Jesus was, as Origen taught, subordinate to the Father (= God), not eternally begotten by the Father, not a real Son of God, this designation was a name of honor and Jesus an adopted Son of God ( Arianism ).

Athanasius was a staunch opponent of Arius in the 4th century . He taught that the Logos Jesus, as the eternal procreation of God, the Father, was emanated only from the Father, the original principle : Christ ... with the additional name Jesus, is the Incarnate Logos or Son of God, the second person of the Trinity with a human nature . The son is thus also of the same nature as the father (homousie), not only of the same nature (homoiusie). The concept of homousy was established as church teaching in the Council of Nicaea in 325.

middle Ages

In texts of mysticism , especially in their Rhineland form, patristic concepts and metaphors are reinterpreted. The sonship of God is not just a past event, but a process to be realized in the soul . Master Eckhart and the authors influenced by him such as Heinrich Seuse , Johannes Tauler and Nikolaus von Kues formulated the idea of a “divine birth in the soul” particularly succinctly .

literature

See also the basic literature on Christology and the history of dogma in general

Various contributions to the terminology of “Son of God” in AT, NT, Doxology, etc., in: Concilium 18 (1982).
Martin Hengel : Studies on Christology , Kleine Schriften Vol. 4, ed. v. Claus-Jürgen Thornton, WUNT 201, Tübingen 2006, esp. Article 4: Der Sohn Gottes, pp. 74–145.
Klaus Koch: The King as Son of God in Egypt and Israel. In: Eckart Otto, Erich Zenger (eds.): "My son are you" (Ps 2,7) , studies on the royal psalms, Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk, Stuttgart 2002, pp. 1–32.
Peter Müller: Son and Son of God - transitions between metaphor and title - connecting lines between metaphor and title christology using the example of the son title. In: Jörg Frey (ed.): Metaphorics and Christology. Theological library Töpelmann 120, De Gruyter, Berlin a. a. 2003, pp. 75-92.
Ulrich B. Müller: "Son of God" - a messianic sovereign title of Jesus. In: Journal for New Testament Science and the Customer of the Older Church 87 (1996), pp. 1–32.

Web links

Herbert Frohnhofen : Selected bibliography for the Son of God Jesus Christ

Individual evidence

↑ The meaning of the composition of both Aramaic nouns, bar nasha does not literally mean “son of man”, but generally “man”.
↑ Martin Hengel: The Son of God. The Origin of Christology and the Jewish-Hellenistic History of Religion . Tübingen 1975, p. 71ff
↑ Martin Karrer : Jesus Christ in the New Testament . Göttingen 1998, p. 191
^ Martin Karrer: Attributes and designations of Jesus , in: Jesus Christ in the New Testament . Göttingen 1998, p. 352f
↑ However, the addition “Son of God” is not entirely certain; it is missing in the Codex Sinaiticus , and the 28th edition of the Novum Testamentum Graece (Nestle-Aland) puts it in square brackets.
↑ Heinz Giesen: The Revelation of Johannes , RNT, Regensburg 1997, p. 118
↑ Akira Satake: The Revelation of John , KEK 16, Göttingen 2008, p. 169 u. 174f.
^ Hans Conzelmann, Andreas Lindemann: Arbeitsbuch zum New Testament 12th edition, Mohr / Siebeck, UTB 52, p. 491
^ Joseph Pohle, in: Kirchliches Handlexikon, by Michael Buchberger, I, Sp. 927.
↑ S. Ueda: The Birth of God in the Soul and the Breakthrough to Godhead , Mohn, Gütersloh 1965 (emphasis on parallels to Eastern ideas), Kurt Flasch : Teufelssaat or Philosophy of the Son of God . Meister Eckhart before the Inquisition, in: Ders .: Battlegrounds of Philosophy. Great controversies from Augustin to Voltaire, Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 2008, pp. 211–226.
↑ See for example Rudolf Haubst : The spiritual birth of the Son of God in the hearts and the redeeming death suffering of Jesus , in: Ders .: Streifzüge in die Cusanische Theologie, Aschendorff, Münster 1991.

[1] The meaning of the composition of both Aramaic nouns, bar nasha does not literally mean “son of man”, but generally “man”.

[2] Martin Hengel: The Son of God. The Origin of Christology and the Jewish-Hellenistic History of Religion . Tübingen 1975, p. 71ff

[3] Martin Karrer : Jesus Christ in the New Testament . Göttingen 1998, p. 191

[4] Martin Karrer: Attributes and designations of Jesus , in: Jesus Christ in the New Testament . Göttingen 1998, p. 352f

[5] However, the addition “Son of God” is not entirely certain; it is missing in the Codex Sinaiticus , and the 28th edition of the Novum Testamentum Graece (Nestle-Aland) puts it in square brackets.

[6] Heinz Giesen: The Revelation of Johannes , RNT, Regensburg 1997, p. 118

[7] Akira Satake: The Revelation of John , KEK 16, Göttingen 2008, p. 169 u. 174f.

[8] Hans Conzelmann, Andreas Lindemann: Arbeitsbuch zum New Testament 12th edition, Mohr / Siebeck, UTB 52, p. 491

[9] Joseph Pohle, in: Kirchliches Handlexikon, by Michael Buchberger, I, Sp. 927.

[10] S. Ueda: The Birth of God in the Soul and the Breakthrough to Godhead , Mohn, Gütersloh 1965 (emphasis on parallels to Eastern ideas), Kurt Flasch : Teufelssaat or Philosophy of the Son of God . Meister Eckhart before the Inquisition, in: Ders .: Battlegrounds of Philosophy. Great controversies from Augustin to Voltaire, Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 2008, pp. 211–226.

[11] See for example Rudolf Haubst : The spiritual birth of the Son of God in the hearts and the redeeming death suffering of Jesus , in: Ders .: Streifzüge in die Cusanische Theologie, Aschendorff, Münster 1991.